Internal Corrosion Testing of Aluminum Radiators

Recent trends in the automotive industry call for a significant increase in radiator long-term durability. At the same time, the manufacturers are also calling for lower weight and less mixing of dissimilar metals. These factors contribute to the problems of designing radiators that are capable of high levels of corrosion resistance in our everchanging environmental conditions.

In most cases, the corrosion process during normal use of aluminum radiators is too slow, and consequently, it is necessary to perform accelerated testing to evaluate corrosion resistance. The purpose of the internal corrosion test is to simulate the conditions experienced in an automobile engine cooling system operated with improperly maintained coolant in an accelerated time period. However, no specific standard for internal corrosion testing exists, and the producers and customers of radiators use different parameters to perform this test.

This paper presents Valeo's internal corrosion testing equipment description and laboratory test results by means of the following topics: